Miri's World
Plot Orphan *'Location:' The Core - three weeks away from Starbase 11, two weeks away from the Romulan Neutral Zone. Not too far from Planet Q, the Murasaki Nebula and the Tantalus Penal Colony. *'Source:' Explored by the USS Enterprise in 2267 (TOS: Miri ) *'Races present:' Humans, Cetations, Elephants. Now, in the ruins of old St Louis there is a Federation colony *'Tech level:' Was TL 10 when destroyed, Now ranges from TL 0 in the hinterlands to TL 15 at the Federation Colony of St Louis. *'Politics:' Tribes of long lived children roam the waste lands. the Federation colony is run by the Miri's-World-Recovery Dept of the Federation. Locally a Colony Administrator runs things in a quietly technocratic fashion. *'Religion:' Several mutant childrens stories and mutilated myths are told among the tribes of children Notes This duplicate earth was in lock step with Earth Prime until they both reached 1967. On Miri's World, a mad genetics lab was 150 years ahead of where anyone had a right to think they were and they thought they were on the trail of Longevity. One wonders if they weren't influenced by the El-Aurians. From Memory Alpha: Spock discovers research dating back three hundred years: there was a project, with the goal of prolonging life. It worked, after a fashion; but a miscalculation annihilated the adults, leaving only the children to survive on their own for the last three centuries. Once they reach puberty, they succumb to the disease. Spock calculates that within a week, all of the Human members of the landing party will succumb; even sooner than that, they will go mad. The death rate was near enough 100% as to make no difference. This left a post apocalyptic wasteland where eternal children scrabbled in the ruins to survive and fled in terror from the newly infected. In 2267, the Enterprise happened upon the Planet. Kirk, Rand, McCoy, Spock and two unnamed Security guys beamed down and caught the disease. Then McCoy managed to cure it. Later in 2267, the Federation Landed a relief mission - it's intent to offer the cure to the children of Miri's world and help them recover from the disaster. Of course, since the children hate and fear adults, usually - it's not as easy as all that. Many of the children on Miri's world are accomplished hunters and gatherers having had 300+ years to learn. Meta This episode hand waves an excuse to use the back lot of the Paramount Studio. Astute fans noticed that it is, in fact Mayberry . But then the amazing assertion that there is a duplicate of Earth is ignored and left to drop. A blatant Plot Orphan. This idea stunned me. I played with how to incorporate it into an RPG since at least 1983. The idea eventually became the story "Artifacts " which depicts Ussher's World - and establishes the back story for Duplicate Earths in ST-OM. But not all the ones in Epiphany Trek. Unanswered Questions You're kidding, right? Unanswered Questions!? Okay. besides the obvious - which I made up answers to for ST-OM, there are a couple of others. *Did the cure restore the children to normal life spans? I don't know. If yes, then by 2372 you're dealing with the 4th and 5th generation descendants of the survivors - they'll look like normal Federation people who's home world has interesting archeology. I find on thinking about it, that I have been assuming that Miri and her fellow survivors kept their long life spans, and are alive today on Miri's World. If this is the case then why hasn't Federation medical science duplicated this? *If Kirk, McCoy, Rand and two redshirts got the disease, does that mean they got the extended life spans? You'd think so - if that was an effect of getting the disease. Maybe it didn't work on adults, only children. If that's the case, then maybe the Survivor children must, when they reach puberty get vaccinated and return to normal life spans. *How does Earth Relate to her twin sister? I assume for ST-OM that Between 2267 and 2372, Earth quietly ignores the whole thing. It raises a freight pod worth of questions and they don't seem to have comfortable answers. That is, until The Discovery encounters Ussher's World, and word of that gets back to the Federation. Then, I suspect, scandals and hilarity ensue. Category:Duplicate Earths Category:ST-OM Category:Epiphany Trek Category:Starbase 600 Game Category:Planets